MEDIA MEMO
Trump’s Return to Fox News Gets a Cool Reception
… on Fox News
The network used to be a safe space for the former
president. But Brian Kilmeade, Jason Chaffetz and others had tough words for
his appearance on “Hannity,” his first Fox interview in months.
Michael M.
Grynbaum
By Michael
M. Grynbaum
March 29,
2023
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/business/media/trump-fox-desantis-hannity.html
Reunions
can be awkward.
Former
President Donald J. Trump finally returned this week to his old stomping ground,
Fox News, after several months away. The chilly reception from some of his
onetime media allies underscored his uneasy place at the moment in Republican
politics.
Yes, Sean
Hannity, the Fox News anchor who conducted the interview, listened patiently as
Mr. Trump reeled off his usual talking points about the “fake news media” and
“horrible” Democrats. The former president said Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a
potential rival for the Republican presidential nomination, would be toiling
“at a pizza parlor” without his endorsement. And he concluded with the grim
assessment that “our country is dead.”
But while
Fox News and Mr. Trump existed for years in a kind of symbiosis — with on-air
personalities effusively praising Mr. Trump, and benefiting from big ratings
for his frequent appearances — the network is no longer the all-encompassing
Trump safe space it used to be.
Rupert
Murdoch has used media properties like Fox News to promote Mr. DeSantis as a
potential savior of the Republican Party. Until this week, Mr. Trump had not
appeared on a Fox News broadcast since declaring his candidacy in November. And
minutes after his interview aired, network personalities were taking the former
president to task.
Laura
Ingraham, whose prime-time program directly follows “Hannity,” was once so
close to Mr. Trump that she attended his election night party in November 2020.
On her Monday show, she allowed the New York Post columnist Miranda Devine to
criticize Mr. Trump for “complaining endlessly about the past” and “constantly
dwelling on grievance.”
When her
other guest, the Trump loyalist Stephen Miller, loudly interjected that the
former president “has put forward a new policy plan every week,” Ms. Ingraham
sounded skeptical of his argument. “Why isn’t he talking about them?” she asked
Mr. Miller.
The next
morning, Jason Chaffetz, a Republican congressman turned Fox News contributor,
denounced Mr. Trump’s performance as “absolutely horrific.”
“I voted
for Donald Trump twice, I have defended him countless times; I thought he was
horrific,” Mr. Chaffetz said. “I think that was the worst interview I’ve seen
the president do.” He went on to criticize the former president for “whining,”
“complaining” and playing “the victim card.” Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade,
two of the co-hosts of the morning show “Fox & Friends,” also knocked Mr.
Trump’s performance.
Nielsen
ratings — one of Mr. Trump’s preferred metrics — provided their own kind of
tough review. In past years, a Trump interview almost always delivered Fox
News’s biggest audience of the day. On Monday, Mr. Trump drew 3.04 million
viewers, higher than the average episode of “Hannity” but well below that day’s
viewership for “The Five” and “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
With a
defamation suit against Fox News filed by Dominion Voting Systems hurtling
toward a trial, it was notable that Mr. Hannity’s interview with Mr. Trump was
taped. Mr. Trump’s baseless claims about a “rigged” 2020 election are central
to the Dominion case; a live appearance by Mr. Trump in which he repeats those
claims could be hazardous for the network. It could also put a Fox News anchor
in the awkward position of having to contradict Mr. Trump on the air, the kind
of exchange that could easily go viral and turn off some of the network’s
viewers.
Mr.
DeSantis, meanwhile, continues to rely on Fox News and other Murdoch properties
for his major media appearances, even as his absence from other
conservative-friendly outlets like Breitbart News has come under new scrutiny.
Megyn
Kelly, the former Fox News star who now hosts a successful podcast, revealed to
listeners this week that Mr. DeSantis had been ducking her invitations.
“I love
Piers Morgan, he’s a pal of mine, but why would you go sit with the British guy
and not come on this show?” Ms. Kelly said on her program, referring to Mr.
DeSantis’s recent interview with the London-based Mr. Morgan.
“I will
venture to say he’s afraid,” Ms. Kelly added. “I’m just going to put it out
there: He’s afraid because he knows the kind of interview that I would give
him. He’s not going to get a pass.”
The Florida
governor avoids most one-on-one interactions with the mainstream media. Other
than a recent appearance on Eric Bolling’s Newsmax program, Mr. DeSantis has
leaned extensively on venues controlled by Mr. Murdoch, even those based overseas.
He gave an interview to The Times of London. Mr. Morgan is based at TalkTV, a
British network owned by Mr. Murdoch, although his DeSantis interview aired on
the streaming channel Fox Nation and was excerpted by The New York Post.
It has not
been lost on Mr. Trump’s allies that Mr. DeSantis’s poll numbers have softened
when he is enjoying mostly sympathetic coverage from Fox News.
And there
are subtle signs that Mr. DeSantis may not always be able to bank on the
network’s good graces. On Tuesday, Jesse Watters, a co-host of “The Five,”
offered some advice to the Florida governor in the wake of Mr. Trump’s attacks.
“DeSantis
is taking a bruising,” Mr. Watters said. “If I were Ron, I would start talking.
Because every day that goes by, Trump draws blood.” He added: “How many more
weeks and months is this going to sustain itself? Ron’s got to come out and say
something, or else he’s just going to limp into this primary.”
Michael M.
Grynbaum is a media correspondent covering the intersection of business, culture
and politics. @grynbaum
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário